Are there any Medicaid policies towards illegal and legal immigrants - Essay Example

Running head: Medicaid Policies towards legal and illegal Immigrants Medicaid Policies towards legal and illegal Immigrants In APA Format Every year millions of people sneak ill legally into another country by crossing the border line, this is very common in United States of America. This is called ill legal Immigration, in other words, people who do not have work permit or any kind of permission from the government to come and stay in that particular country. This paper will throw light upon the Medicaid policies provided to the legal as well as illegal immigrants.

“Each year the Border Patrol is making more than a million apprehensions of people who flagrantly violate our nations laws by unlawfully crossing U.S. borders to work and to receive publicly-funded services, often with the aid of fraudulent documents. Such entry is a misdemeanor and, if repeated, becomes punishable as a felony. Over eight million illegal immigrants live in the United States -- some estimate even more.” (American Patrol, 21 September 2008.)Research has found that ill legal immigration affects the citizens of that particular country, especially the poor people and the legal immigrants.

It is also found that the taxes paid by these illegal immigrants are far less than the services received by them. Countries like United States of America are trying their level best to counter this by increased border patrol but this is not only reason for illegal immigration, most of the cases occur because of people who overstay even after their visa is expired. United States of America provides Medicaid facilities to the legal and illegal immigrants but this results in a very big loss for the economy of the country because the people take undue advantage of the same by overstaying in the hospitals even after recovery.

The Medicaid policies depend on state to state but there are some states in America which provide the young children and elders requiring medical attention with great facilities like free drugs, free nursing and proper medical attention. Off late the federal law has brought in many restrictions to keep a check on the illegal immigrants, this also ensures a strict check on the money spent on the public welfare. Some of the services provided by Medicaid to the people are Vaccine for the children, rural health care services, transportation services and these are just a handful of many services provided by the Medicaid in America.

The funding of these services provided by the states comes from a partnership between the federal and the state government and this was established in the year 1965, this comes under the social security act. “States with lower per capita income get more government money, those with higher get less. This Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in 2000 paid 76.8% of all Medicaid in Mississippi, 70 % in the District of Columbia, and 59.8% in Alaska. Alaskas FMAP increased markedly in 2005.

The federal government also reimburses states for Medicaid administration and for Indian Health Service facilities. (Medicaid, 21 September 2008)“Medi-Cal is Californias Medicaid program. This is a public health insurance program which provides needed health care services for low-income individuals including families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, foster care, pregnant women, and low income people with specific diseases such as tuberculosis, breast cancer or HIV/AIDS.  Medi-Cal is financed equally by the State and federal government.

” (Health care services, 21 September 2008). There are various programs under Medi-Cal, some of the most noticeable ones are, Access for infants and mothers which provides pregnant women with a very low cost quality attention. American Indian infant Health Initiative, this provides the Indian families with home management services to the families at high risk. According to a study it was found that the largest expenditure made on illegal immigrants was on their children’s education. There are many other facilities given to the illegal immigrants and there is so much spent day in and day out in providing these services to these people.

ReferencesAmerican Patrol. In American patrol.com. Retrieved on 21 September 2008 from: http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/isacrime.htmlHealth care services. In Dhcs.ca. Retrieved on 21 September 2008 from: http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/default.aspxMedicaid. In News with views. Retrieved on 21 September 2008 from: http://www.newswithviews.com/Cosman/madeleine11.htm